Softball earns split with Clark

Apr 07, 2007

WORCESTER, MASS. (taken from a Clark University press release)
– The Brandeis University softball team concluded the week
above .500 after splitting a doubleheader at Clark University
today. The Judges dropped the opener, 6-0, before rallying to
capture the nightcap, 8-6. With the split, Brandeis moved to 11-10,
while the Cougars are 10-10.

First-year Melissa Traft (Milton, Mass.) allowed five hits and
struck out one to earn the complete game victory for Clark.

Lauren Blake (Oakland, Me.) picked up two hits, while Lauren Ackein
(Tacoma, Wash.) and Heather Warren (Upland, Calif.) drove in a pair
of runs to lead the Cougars.

Blake led off the game with a double to centerfield and later
scored on a Brandeis infield error to give Clark an early 1-0 lead.
In a five-run fifth inning, Ackein and Warren had two-run base hits
and Darcy Kurashige-Elliott (Berkeley, Cali.) capped the explosion
with an RBI single.

Vaillette took the loss for Brandeis. She gave up seven hits, four
earned runs, while striking out two.

In the nightcap, the Judges took advantage of a Clark infield error
to take a 1-0 edge in the first inning.

Clark answered with five runs in the bottom of the frame. After
Blake singled and Ackein reached on an error, Warren blasted her
fourth homerun of the season and second in as many days, for a 3-1
advantage. Joanna Clark (Windham, Me.) added to Clark’s lead
(5-1) with a two-run single.

Brandeis got five runs back in the fifth inning on RBI hits from
Streilein and Volpe, a fielder’s choice by Mayer, a Clark
error and Worth’s groundout to lead by one (6-5). The Cougars
knotted the score in the bottom half of the frame on
Kurashige-Elliott’s RBI double.

In the top of the sixth, the Judges took the lead on a wild pitch
that scored Amelia Schimmel (Oakland, Calif.) and an errant throw
that brought home Streilein.

Warren, who took the loss on the mound, had three hits and drove in
three runs to lead Clark.

Streilein led Brandeis’ 11-hit attack with three hits and an
RBI. Volpe and Schimmel added two hits.